How does acceptance into graduate school work?

 

This can be confusing as the process varies between disciplines, countries, universities, and departments.

 

In the McGill Biology department, and in most ecology and evolution programs in Canada, acceptance depends on finding a professor who is willing to support your research with both time and money.

 

Step 1 is for prospective students to think carefully about what they want to do and where they want to do it.  For example, which topics and approaches (e.g. field work vs data synthesis)? What type of degree and when to start?  Do you want to be in a big city vs small town, big vs small university, big vs small lab? 

 

Step 2 is to contact professors whose research and lab seem like a good match, and ask whether they are taking on students.  If the professor has space and funds and the student seems promising, they usually email back and forth, meet to chat by zoom etc.  If the student is relatively sure they would like to work in a certain lab and the professor is relatively sure they would take on that student, they will sometimes work on scholarship applications (e.g. NSERC or FRQNT project proposals) together.  

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Step 3 is official acceptance by McGill. To be accepted into the McGill Biology graduate program (this is current as of March 2023), a student needs to have a professor that signs a form saying they will advise the student and guarantee them a minimum level of funding.  After that acceptance by the department is generally a formality. 

 

So while it is critical to meet the application deadlines set by McGill, the crux of being accepted is funding a supervisor and finding funding.

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More info about funding: It is challenging to compare funding packages across programs.  Even when programs have a minimum guaranteed support level, they vary in whether this includes teaching assistantship salary, and how tuition is covered.  Not to mention huge variation in the cost of living among cities. 

 

In McGill Biology, the guaranteed funding includes a minimum stipend + enough funds to cover the student's tuition - however much McGill is going to charge.  This funding can only come from scholarships and research grants - for better and for worse, it cannot be offset by teaching assistantships.  There are some tuition waivers available that reduce international tuition fees to the level charged to Canadians, but only at the PhD level. 

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The good part of this system is that after acceptance there is less variation in take-home salaries among graduate students - students who pay more tuition or are eligible for fewer scholarships (e.g. Canadian students from outside Quebec, international students) have the same guaranteed income.  The bad part is that it disadvantages those  students during the acceptance process.  For example, it is unfortunately pretty much impossible to support an international MSc student unless they have a scholarship from their home country that covers their tuition, due to the high international tuition fees and lack of waivers to cover them at the MSc level.

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It sucks that money plays such a big part in acceptance to graduate school.  If you are a prospective student don't be discouraged - shop around!  Funding policies vary a lot between departments and universities.  In some places tuition is waived for all PhD students.  Funding also varies a lot among labs and years - sometimes there is money to support students without scholarships, sometimes there is not.  It never hurts to ask.  To improve your chances, make a strong first impression - take the time to read the professor's website and write an email that shows you've thought carfeully about why you'd like to work in their lab.  Figure our which awards you are eligible for and plan to apply.  Look for fully funded positions being advertised (e.g. on the CSEE webpage). There are a ton of blogs and advice pages about this all of these steps all over the internet.  Good luck!